I've reached my goal

Hello all,

My PTTP journey started on the 28/06/2008 with a starting deadlift of 270#. I got this program with the purpose of building strength without gaining much mass, as was advertised, more specifically lower body strength to help increase my VJ. I set a goal of a 600# deadlift to ensure that I had a good strength base to work with.

Yesterday, everything game together as I pulled up the 600# loaded bar off the ground.

I would like to thank Pavel, for writing PTTP. I'll still say it's one of the best strength training books ever written. To the DragonDoor forum, for giving me encouragement, pointers and tips along the way and most of all, I'll like to thank God for helping me to reach my goal without any major injuries. I hope from this post that people can get some sort of encouragement and realize that gaining strength is for anybody and everybody. If I can get stronger, anybody can.

As for what I'll do next, I'll still use the PTTP format, but do squats at least 2x a week and deadlift 2x a week with the barbell military press 4x a week. I'll also start the PM from ETK with my 16k and work up to doing the ROP. I know when I'm doing the ROP I'll have to back off on the PTTP format.

I really apologize for not having a video, but I hope to have a video of a 600# lift soon.

I'm still working on those military presses, though :D.

Trinidad doesn't know what they are missing out on

OK, you might want to know what I'm talking about. Click on the link below

Brian Chin Leung - Kettlebell training




I may sound biased. OK, I admit, I am biased, but it's because I love kettlebells, and I believe that if Trinidad and Tobago gets exposed to them, spin instructors may go out of business. Seriously, they are that good.

I hope, that over time, this would change. And I plan to be at the forefront to make this change a reality. People here spend too much money on fancy gyms and personal trainers with very little results other than loss of weight.....of their wallets.

If you are from Trinidad, and would like more information about kettlebells and their benefits, the main website I recommend for a start is DragonDoor.com and you can take a read of some success stories and kettlebell articles. Hopefully, this would get you thinking.

PR on my military press

Last week Thursday, I was able to do 1 rep of 90# on my standing barbell military press. On the same day, I was able to do 5 reps total of 80# on the same exercise. On my last cycle, I wasn't able to do 1 rep with 80#. I'm really glad for the progress. May not be much, but I had to start somewhere :D

Training progress

Today, I tried for a 1RM pull in the deadlift. 570#, the most I've ever deadlifted. After the max pull, this was my workout:


Deadlift:-
440# x 5 reps
400# x 5 reps

Military Press:-
70# x 4 reps
70# x 1 rep
60# x 5 reps

KB swings for 12 mins:- 320 swings

The Deadlift is NOT a back exercise!!

From an earlier post, I said that the misconception out there of people thinking that the deadlift is a back exercise and thus has lead to poor form in the deadlift. In this video below, there will be people who will be doing the deadlift with their back and those who will be doing the lift with their legs. See if you can recognize the difference:

Now if you guessed that the lifters with the rounded (lower) backs were lifting with their backs, you are correct. Lifting with rounded backs means that the glutes and hamstrings are not being used to lift the weights off the floor, but the back. However, if the (lower) backs are straight, this means that the legs were used to lift the weight off the floor.

Now you might ask what's the point of this? Lifting with your back means that you are robbing yourself of your full potential. You can never lift more with your back more than you can lift with your legs. Also, this puts your back in a very risky position, as the lower back flexion puts the spine at the greatest risk for disk slippage and straining of ligaments. Never happened to me, but what I heard of it, it's not a nice thing to experience. Any serious injury equals lost training time, and a lot of times, having to restart to build back up your strength. I don't want this to happen to you, hence the reason for this post.

My progress

I just finished a Power to the People deadlift cycle with a 10# improvement. I was able to do 520# for 2 reps off a 4" deficit. So I'll take the rest of the week off and start back on Monday on the deadlift.

As for the press (military), I'm doing 60# x 5 reps and 50# x 5 reps so I'll be doing that for one more day and then increase the press by 10#. Hopefully I can do the 70# for 5 reps without putting the bar down.

My two cents on diet

As a gym trainer, this is a very common start of a conversation between a new gym member and myself if they come to me for help:

Client: "I want to lose weight and get toned."

Trinigirevik: "Just to let you know, yes, exercise will help you to lose weight. However, you can have the best exercise program, if your diet is not up to scratch, you will not lose the weight."

Client: "So what do you recommend?"

Trinigirevik (now I'm talking to you viewers on the interwebs):

"Now before I continue, just to let you know I'm not a diet professional and if you want someone to structure a diet for you, contact a dietician. However, that is going to cost you, but if it's necessary, do it.

For most people, I think one simple change in their diet is going to have a major change in their body composition. Most people in this world like sweet things. Now there's nothing wrong with liking sweet things. I like sweet things too. However, there are sweet things that will get you fat, and there are sweet things that will help you lose fat.

According to this link, one person consumes appoximately 24lbs of sugar per person per year. In other words, the global consumption of sugar is approximately 144 billion lbs. No wonder 1 billion adults are overweight and 3 million are considered obese.

Too much of this...

Can lead to this

I have a simple suggestion. Instead of eating 3 cheesecake slices, eat as much apples to your heart's content. Instead of drinking 6 sodas a day, drink 6 glasses of water a day (and more). In other words, satisfy your sweet tooth with fruits: apples, pears, mangoes, soursop, guavas, grapes etc. There are many others that you can have at your disposal. They are more satisfying, as in they make you feel full faster and longer. So your hunger urges are reduced and you just cannot put in the same amount of calories in one setting as say 3 slices of cheesecake and 2 Coke drinks.

Consuming more of this...

Can lead to this

Diet is an extremely broad and deep topic, and there are many angles where this can be tackled. However, I think this advice here is advice you may have heard before. There is a reason for that; because it works! BUT IF YOU ARE DIABETIC, CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR AND DIETICIAN!!!! This is one of the instances where you have to spend the money on a dietician. But for most people, doing this simple switch can go a long way in helping one to lose weight. And if you do this in conjunction with strength training, you may be turning heads at the beach one day."